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psychology research methods

are naturalistic observations similar to covert observations as they are very similar and do not ask for any sort of consent.
And are controlled observations taken place in a natural environment or an environment like a lab?

Reply 1

aa248

Naturalistic observations are all about making sure the participant is in the setting they would normally be in (e.g. if you're observing behaviour of students in class, you would conduct the study in a school classroom). Covert is about making sure the participants you're observing don't know that you're observing them.
I wouldn't say naturalistic and covert are very similar cause they both look at two different things. Like you can have a naturalistic covert observation and a naturalistic overt observation.
As for controlled ones, they take place in a lab cause you can control extraneous variables.

Think of it like this:
Naturalistic vs Controlled
Covert vs Overt

So technically you could have all of the following combinations:
Naturalistic covert
Naturalistic overt
Controlled covert
Controlled overt